


The Leaf

by VyeLoyomBrightwarrior



Category: Stargate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 08:06:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3802954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VyeLoyomBrightwarrior/pseuds/VyeLoyomBrightwarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rush and Young spend a lazy afternoon watching clouds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> I found a word generator and this story is the result. Hope you enjoy!

He lies on his back, the wind gently caressing him, making his hair and clothes stir. He looks up at the ever changing clouds. “That one looks like a gun,” the man next to him muses. Rush looks at the fluffy cloud that the man is pointing to. He snorts.

“You would think of a gun,” he states. “I see the letter L.”

“So unimaginative,” Young tisks. Rush smiles as he looks at random clouds in the sky.

“Because a gun is so much more creative,” he argues back, tilting his head to follow a cloud that looks like a strand of DNA. Best not to mention that to Young. The man will only tease his scientific tendencies.

“What have you been working on recently?” Young asks him lazily, choosing to ignore his comment. Rush opens his mouth, about to respond, when he catches sight of a leaf. Of the leaf. He grabs it, trying to make the action look lazy as he catches it before it can land on his face.

“Boring stuff you won’t understand,” he states, setting the leaf beside him on the ground.

“But I bet you still want to talk about it,” Young guesses.

“Not really,” Rush states, casting around for a distraction, any distraction. Her voice echoes in his head and he can almost see her arm pointing up excitedly at the cloud. “Doesn’t that one look like a violin?” he questions, pointing out the cloud she had shown him what feels like a lifetime ago. Young huffs a sigh, turning on his side to better see Rush and this is wrong, so wrong. That last time he was with Young the place was hot, dusty, foreign. It wasn’t good and green and achingly familiar. That fact that Young is here at all, that he had been okay with that, is very disturbing. It makes him want to question his sanity. Though actually, he’s sure he has to be insane by now so questioning his sanity would be useless.

“Did something bad happen at work?” Young asks like he’s concerned, like he cares. Rush sits up, putting some distance between himself and the man.

“Yeah, I tried to frame a guy for murder and he left me for dead,” he states levelly. “And it doesn’t matter who you use, Gloria, Mandy, Eli, Chloe, TJ, Young. I will always see through your lies.” It’s supposed to dissolve now but it doesn’t. Instead he gets a terrible headache. He clenches his head with a grunt of pain and surprise and Young gets up, standing over him.

“Tell us how,” Young demands, his voice eerily his and yet not. Rush clenches his eyes shut, shaking his head no. No he will not tell them how he figures out this isn’t real because if he does they’ll fix it and if they fix it then they’ll get him to tell them everything. “Fine then,” Young says and then there are hands on his shirt, hauling him up. And this, this must be why they picked Young this time. The man forces him backwards before he has a chance to think, his pounding headache worsening as his back is slammed into the tree. “Tell us,” the man demands again.

“Go to hell!” he returns, not sure if he’s talking to the aliens or the man who left him to get caught by them. He lunges at the dream Young, pushing off of the tree so he can tackle the man to the ground. The roll for a bit, wrestling as each tries to get the upper hand. Young is stronger though and finally gets Rush on his back. Rush feels his head crush a leaf, the leaf as he stares up into the angry eyes of Young.

“Tell us,” the man repeats a third time. He responds by slipping his right hand out of the colonel’s grip and hitting him in the side of the head. Young just growls and grabs his wrist again, forcing his hands together and tying them with rope the man hadn’t even had in true nightmare fashion. “Tell us.” He’s beginning to hate that phrase. He thrashes and squirms, trying to break free. Young lifts his head and slams it back down, increasing Rush’s headache and rendering him momentarily unable to think. And then Young has hauled him to his feet, forced him back against the tree. “Tell us.” And he starts to sob because he can’t take it. He can’t take the abuse and he can’t take the memory of what happened on that planet, the memory of how he got here.

“The violin!” he cries out, shifting and turning his face away. “It’s the cloud that looks like a violin!” Young smiles, an eerie creepy smile, thinking he’s won. Not knowing…

_He catches the leaf in one smooth motion before it can lad on his face. “Nick,” Gloria sighs in mock disappointment. “You were supposed to let it land on you.” He grins and obliges, balancing the leaf on his nose. She giggles, making him laugh. The leaf slides off his nose onto the ground. “Look!” she cries excitedly, pointing up into the sky at a cloud. “Doesn’t that one look like a violin?”_

_“Yes, yes it does,” he agrees, slipping his hand up to grab the leaf, pocketing it. He doesn’t ever want to forget their first date after all._

“Good,” dream Young praises and then things dissolve like they’re supposed to.

“That one looks like a gun.”


End file.
